1938 SS Jaguar 3.5 litre Graber Coupe

1938 SS Jaguar 3.5 litre Graber Coupe

The 1938 SS Cars had a new stiffer boxed chassis, an all-steel body replaced thee wood/steel combination, and a 3.5-liter overhead valve 125 horsepower offered as an option to the 2.5-liter unit.

There were 1,065 examples of the 3.5-liter salons produced, plus 241 drop-head coupes, and 118 OTS built before World War II. Except for one SS 100 built by Jaguar itself, they were coachbuilt to special order.

This example was shipped as a bare saloon chassis to Hermann Graber, at Wichtrach, near Berne, Switzerland, in May 1938. The car was registered in Switzerland as a 'Limousine Coupe' on March 31st of 1949 to Enterprise de Grads Travaux S.A. of Lausanne. In 1953, the car was registered to 'Labhart Thelma Violet' of Geneva and later believed to have been purchased by a Canadian serviceman who retuned to Canada with it. By 1956, it was in the care of Brian Metcalfe of Ontario before eventually being purchased by Frederick Corp, who drove it until 1963, and then put it into storage. It was purchased in the early 1970s by George Baker of Windsor, Ontario.

Richard Van Rozeboom of Fresno purchased it late in 1977. In 1986, it was purchased by Dave Martin of California, then sold it to David Gill of Chicago in 1987, who commissioned its restoration.

Kathy and Gerald Nell purchased the car in 1990 and commissioned RM Auto Restoration to restore the car in 1994. Upon completion, it was painted royal blue instead of the original black and gray.

In 1994, the car was shown at the Meadow Brook Concours and won the Designer's Choice Award. It was JCNA National Class winner in 1995 and competed in seven JCNA shows from 1995-99, scoring 99.96-100 points. It has won a ribbon at the Pebble Beach Concours and won at Eyes on Classics and masterpiece of Style and Speed.

Descriptions & pictures by conceptcarz & ultimatecarpage